Judgment of the Court (Fourth Chamber) of 2 May 2019 (request for a preliminary ruling from the Tribunal Supremo — Spain) — Fundación Consejo Regulador de la Denominación de Origen Protegida Queso Manchego v Industrial Quesera Cuquerella SL, Juan Ramón Cuquerella Montagud

(Case C-614/17) ¹

(Reference for a preliminary ruling — Agriculture — Regulation (EC) No 510/2006 — Article 13(1)(b) — Protection of geographical indications and designations of origin for agricultural products and foodstuffs — Manchego cheese (‘queso manchego’) — Use of signs capable of evoking the region with which a protected designation of origin (PDO) is associated — Concept of the ‘average consumer who is reasonably well informed and reasonably observant and circumspect’ — European consumers or consumers of the Member State in which the product covered by the PDO is made and mainly consumed)

Language of the case: Spanish

Referring court

Tribunal Supremo

Parties to the main proceedings

Applicant: Fundación Consejo Regulador de la Denominación de Origen Protegida Queso Manchego

Defendants: Industrial Quesera Cuquerella SL, Juan Ramón Cuquerella Montagud

Operative part of the judgment

Article 13(1)(b) of Council Regulation (EC) No 510/2006 of 20 March 2006 on the protection of geographical indications and designations of origin for agricultural products and foodstuffs must be interpreted as meaning that a registered name may be evoked through the use of figurative signs.

Article 13(1)(b) of Regulation No 510/2006 must be interpreted as meaning that the use of figurative signs evoking the geographical area with which a designation of origin, as referred to in Article 2(1)(a) of that regulation, is associated may constitute evocation of that designation, including where such figurative signs are used by a producer established in that region, but whose products, similar or comparable to those protected by the designation of origin, are not covered by it.

The concept of the average consumer who is reasonably well informed and reasonably observant and circumspect, to whose perception the national court has to refer in order to assess whether there is ‘evocation’ within the meaning of Article 13(1)(b) of Regulation No 510/2006, must be understood as covering European consumers, including consumers of the Member State in which the product giving rise to evocation of the protected name is made or with which that name is geographically associated and in which the product is mainly consumed.

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¹ OJ C 42, 5.2.2018.